A bureaucrat-turned-author Tilak Devasher book, Pakistan: At the Helm could provoke a dart of apprehension for some Pakistanis, due to his professional credentials. He was a cabinet secretary in India and has written three books on Pakistan so far.
This book was a collection of anecdotes, vignettes and incidents of Pakistanis towering leaders from Muhammad Ali Jinnah to Pervez Musharraf. The author has very thoroughly researched his books, as he described he came across these nuggets while researching for his first book, Pakistan: Courting the Abyss.
The book provides numerous vignettes, quirks, and foibles of our country's leaders, pushing readers to oscillate from mirth to forlorn.
The author's analytical collections of anecdotes provide a fascinating insight into the characters of the country who ruled it. It further shines a light on their whims, peculiar traits. And most importantly on why many of them fell from power.
Though a skilful writer, Tilak wisely left political theories, enigmatic philosophies and conventional history, and instead provide a succinct-cum-riveting account of Pakistan's rulers in his book.
The book opened with the country's founder Muhammed Ali Jinnah chapter. Contrary to historical revisionism in the country initiated by Gen Ayub Khan and intensified by Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto. The book, however, unabashedly elucidate Jinnah's fondness for ham sandwiches, swigging whiskey, and western attires. Besides, the book highlighted his contemporaries’ views on him. From Mountbatten opined him as "a psychopathic case" to his beloved wife Ruttie lamenting "he was unable to satisfy her mind and soul." As the "most powerful man in the country", his illustrious career ends up in an ambulance that would break down halfway from the hospital. The book also stated he had two funerals, a Sunni one in the open, which followed Shia norms in his homes.
The next entry was the General-cum-Field Marshal Ayub Khan, who according to the British high commissioner to Pakistan, Gilbert Laithwaite, was not in the highest intellectual class and a failure as a Commanding Officer on active service. Ayub Khan's sycophancy to Iskander Mirza was widely known. The duo in cahoots staged a coup, only Ayub Khan has different plans and deposed the Iskander Mirza twenty days later. He, even consider turning Pakistan into a monarchy.
The books also spill the beans on Ayub's disastrous handling of the '1965 war', and his falling-out with his once close oppo, Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto.
Then enter: General Yahya Khan, infamous for tippler and frolicking. Under his watch, Pakistan dismembered into two halves, and on the same day of Pakistan's dissection, he was partying at his residence in Peshawar with his new paramour.
He was forced to resign from the office. Hence, ending the 13 years of the military junta and ushering into the civilian rule. But, as the civilian prime minister, Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto took over, he tended to rule with a firm hand and brook no criticism, just like his predecessors. His complex personality and feudal mindset overshadowed his innovation and catchy slogan. He pushed "some institutions strings" too hard that it had led him to the gallows.
The one, who led him to the gallows, was his right-man General Zia-ul Haq himself who obsequiously wriggled his way into Bhutto's confidence to become the army chief. Even, Bhutto used to humiliate him by calling him his monkey general. But, the General did not forget and forgive anything. As his monkey general had become the reason for his death. The average-looking general showed an uncanny ability to outmanoeuvre his opponents to become the longest-serving military dictator. But, met his end in a mysterious air-crash
Benazir Bhutto has been described as gutsy however arrogant like her father by William Dalrymple. The ironies associated with her death were that she had questions about her security; one of her phone-exchange with Musharraf finished with him telling her that whatever Americans do, "your security depends on the condition of our relationship", she thought Musharraf's threats were for undermining and restricting her campaigning, while she was assassinated at the same spot Liaqat Ali Khan was assassinated in 1951. In the 2008 election, her party sweeps and made way for her spouse Asif Zardari, known for his 10 per cent cuts.
Furthermore, Nawaz Sharif has been narrated as impetuous, filled with dramatic moves rather than calculated decisions, one with a penchant for food, and had delusions to had a knack for cricket. One side about Sharif the book stressed was his use of public office for personal gains.
Due to the book's epigrammatic style, thus, the readers would not find much about contentious topics in the annals of the country's history like; Jinnah's views on future Pakistan, Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto's strive to build atomic bombs, Zia-ul-Haq's immense support for Mujahideen, handling of Kashmir issue under Benazir and Nawaz Sharif.
Though the author has no rancour for Pakistan, however, he put his extreme efforts to show the negative traits of the country's leaders, albeit with meticulously researched facts and ample references.
The book itself is a must-read for Pakistanis who wanted to explore the characters who ruled the country since its inception.